Since nearly no one is talking about it... (Read 1266 times)

To ignore the contrast between how these events are being covered and discussed both by the media and the general public is upsetting to me. I've always thought RA was a really great forum of intelligent and thoughtful people from a wide range of backgrounds and not just from the US, which is why I shared my anger here. I will think twice before opening up like that in the future.

There has been some excellent discussion in this thread about possible reasons for the difference or perceived difference. The points about one's perception that the event was close to them in some way...either geographically or situationally...the "it could have been me" factor...was quite interesting, for example. I am sure there is some interesting psychology at play here.

However you did not initiate a thread pointing out your perception of a difference and asking for a discussion of why that was. You had already reached a harshly judgemental conclusion; all of the negative energy here can be traced to a single word in that post.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

xor

posted: 8/8/2012 at 10:12 AM

I agree that there has been less coverage overall of the Sikh temple shooting. I think there's a lot of reasons for that.

(reasons deleted for space, but read and processed)

...compared specifically to the Batman shooting? Or in general?

If general, what is your metric? And what should the coverage be including that it isn't?

If specific to Batman, then couldn't the discussion be about why the Batman coverage was perhaps excessive?

All that said, a discussion of Sikhism, religious tolerance, etc might be useful (or not, on an internet message board about running), so that's fine, maybe.

all of the negative energy here can be traced to a single word in that post.

And that's sad, because I think that it actually distracts people from what she was trying to accomplish. Bigotry, etc., is a touchy subject. The shooter in WI was a bigot in the worst way. Many people don't feel comfortable discussing the subject. This thread serves as an example why.

I cannot think of anyone who posted in this thread who does not equally care about the victims and their families in both WI and CO. People show their caring differently, and it's the caring that counts, not how it is shown.

Of course less coverage could be just to do with what else is going on to report. At the moment here in the UK most of the media are Olympics obsessed. We had a lot of coverage of the Batman shootings, but that was before the Olympics started.

Again. In my experience, there was no palpable difference in the news, the internet chatter or the FB chatter between the Colorado shooting and the Wisconsin shooting. Others in this thread have said the same thing. If there was no difference, what are we talking about?

(Although the Colorado shooting dude was waaaay wackier, and perhaps a bit more interesting (in a car crash rubber necking sort of way) than most other recent evil dudes, including Loughner.)

Of course less coverage could be just to do with what else is going on to report. At the moment here in the UK most of the media are Olympics obsessed. We had a lot of coverage of the Batman shootings, but that was before the Olympics started.

And this. As I said back on page one (I think). And as others have said. Colorado happened when there was not much going on, and it happened midweek when folks were sitting bored at their computers. Wisconsin happened during the Olympics and Mars and a bunch of other stuff, and happened during the weekend while folks were not sitting bored at their computers. If there was a palpable difference, it may have had to do with timing as well.

Again. In my experience, there was no palpable difference in the news,

I thought the news coverage was quite a bit more dramatic and extensive for CO, complete with half or more of the nightly news devoted to it for nearly a week, changed graphics/music for the Today show ("Massacre in Colorado"/ sad music, everyone wearing black), a presidential press conference, and more than a few Special Reports.

Of course, I don't watch cable, so maybe I don't know what the eff I'm talking about, but that was my experience.

I thought the news coverage was quite a bit more dramatic and extensive for CO, complete with half or more of the nightly news devoted to it for nearly a week, changed graphics/music for the Today show ("Massacre in Colorado"/ sad music, everyone wearing black), a presidential press conference, and more than a few Special Reports.

Of course, I don't watch cable, so maybe I don't know what the eff I'm talking about, but that was my experience.

Conversely, I think that the local news is covering the shooting in WI more. Those links about the vigils that I provided a page or two back are examples. With the CO shooting I think that there was a NJ resident that was killed and I read about that but that was it.

I definitely feel badly about both shootings. And others (especially the long list of local multiple-person "dude walks in and starts shooting" incidents in Seattle).

CO and WI were different types of incidents. The meaning-making I do with/from these incidents is different. I would expect the news coverage to be different. And thanks, Tanya, for actually taking the time to describe some of the "it just seems less" stuff... that was useful to help me understand. From a "report what happened" aspect, there was soooo much going down with the Batman thing.

It feels kind of silly that my personal worth as a person comes down to whether I build a tribute page or go on and on about the incident in facebook and twitter. Honestly, when I was using facebook, the people who were into tribute pages and going on and on about pain and suffering were the people that got ignored or deefed.